Doyle at the charter school convention

The fact that Gov. Jim Doyle was among the speakers Tuesday at the annual Wisconsin Charter Schools Association conference was taken by many participants as, in itself, a step forward for the charter movement in the state. Doyle had not appeared at any of the conferences previously and has not been perceived as being either particularly friendly or unfriendly toward charter schools, which are publicly funded and generally authorized to operate by school districts, but which operate with some definite independence from traditional schyool systems.

In the course of two days at the Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee, Doyle, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and Tony Evers, the incoming state superintendent of public instruction spoke. Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, told several hundred people in his remarks that the visits by those three "really says a lot to me about where you are. . . . That in itself is a sign of tremendous progress."

Doyle praised charter schools in Wisconsin for bringing more innovation and accountability to the education scene in Wisconsin. Most of his remarks were about the importance of not cutting education funding at a time when many areas of government spending were being reduced.

Doyle said that there were charter school advocates as president and as secretary of education now. Asked after the speech if he would use the same label for himself as he did for Barack Obama and Arne Duncan, Doyle said yes. He said charter schools have "proven to be very effective."